Employee involvement in the public administrative sector: an exploration of the engagement drivers in Cameroon

Article Employee involvement in the public administrative sector: an exploration of the engagement drivers in Cameroon International Review of Administrative Sciences International Review of Administrative Sciences 0(0) 1–17 ! The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0020852319838037 journals.sagepub.com/home/ras André Tioumagneng University of Yaoundé II, Cameroon Issofou Njifen University of Yaoundé II, Cameroon Abstract In many developing countries, despite the efforts made to roll out New Public Management, public service quality is still more of an ideal than a reality. Employee disengagement emerges time and again in reflections on the causes of the problem, without, in most contexts, having any precise explanations. The article sets out to identify the engagement drivers likely to secure the effective involvement of public officials tasked with providing the public administrative service. To do this, an empirical study is conducted in Cameroon. The analysis makes use of both statistical inference and content analysis. Its results tell us that the involvement of public officials is linked, in particular, to work organisation, human resources management practices and the recognition of their potential by their superiors. Points for practitioners This study identifies some major current issues. For anyone involved in human resources management, work involvement is a competitive tool that creates value. It is considered as one of the general objectives that staff management practices should help to achieve. A high-quality public service requires particular attention to be granted Corresponding author: Issofou Njifen, University of Yaoundé II, BP: 1365 Yaoundé. Email: njifenm@yahoo.fr 2 International Review of Administrative Sciences 0(0) to work involvement. The study reveals many employee engagement drivers that can boost the performance of public administrations, particularly in developing countries. Keywords Civil servant, engagement, human resources management, involvement Introduction Although implicitly linked to different human resources management (HRM) practices, employee engagement can be considered as a significant input when it comes to the performance of organisations. Its purpose is to develop individual attitudes and behaviours that contribute to the achievement of the organisation’s objectives (Guerrero and Sire, 2001; Tremblay and Wills, 2005). At the individual level, an engaged employee is an employee who is confident that they will be fairly rewarded in line with their skills, behaviour at work and results (Wils et al., 1998; Queneville et al., 2004). Engagement is therefore an indicator of an employee’s emotional and affective commitment to their organisation. For some authors, it refers, to some extent, to involvement (Pedneault, 2000). Many attempts to understand the concept of involvement lead to a proliferation of definitions that refer to distinct theoretical fields (Meyer and Herscovitch, 2001). Overall, involvement refers to a psychological state that reflects the individual’s predisposition to act in favour of a given object (Brown, 1996; Oliver, 1990). Studies on work involvement have generally grown out of research into work satisfaction or motivation. Above all, they set out to understand the causes of certain organisational behaviours, such as absenteeism or turnover (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; Meyer et al., 2002; Mowday et al., 1982). While empirical work is developing in the private sector, the civil service in general remains a poorly studied sector in terms of its Human Resources Management (HRM) methods, despite its contribution to economic development (Olowu, 2001) and the significant weight of user expectations within public services. Over the past four decades, public administrations around the world have been hit hard by the rise of what the authors call ‘managerialism’ (Chanlat, 1998; Mintzberg, 1989). This new managerial thinking in the world of public services is closely associated with the fierce criticism of the bureaucratic model by many actors calling for more flexible, dynamic and efficient organisations (Peters, 1992). As these good practices cannot be applied in all contexts, public service reform in Africa has proved relatively effective in certain countries, particularly in: Ethiopia, which has succeeded in transforming its public finance management to keep pace with international standards (Peterson, 2011); Kenya, which has managed to develop a results-oriented corporate culture within public services (Odhiambo, 2009); Tioumagneng and Njifen 3 and Tanzania, where public service reform has proved more effective than in many African countries (Morgan et al., 2010). In other countries such as Cameroon, public ethics have deteriorated significantly and the main principles that are meant to guide public action have fallen by the wayside or are neglected. In Cameroon, according to the General Civil Service Regulations, the public official is required to personally provide the public service with which they are tasked and to devote themselves to it in all circumstances with diligence, probity, respect for the public good and a sense of responsibility.1 Given the rights and obligations of civil servants,2 the public administration thus relies on their effective involvement. General Instruction No. 002 of 1 October 2002 on the organisation of government work sets out the main objectives assigned to public officials and establishes the rules that should underpin their actions. This text innovates on several points compared with that of 4 June 1998, including the determination of the fundamental objective of administrative action, which is to promote the development and well-being of all Cameroonians, and the overriding duty of public officials to serve and not to enslave populations (Bakiti, 2014; Onana, 2011). Within the framework of this new managerial philosophy, the sense of public service becomes an essential element of motivation: better management of officials to better serve users. However, when we take a closer look at the civil servant, in particular, in their role as social actor dedicated to their particular professional activity, we realise that it was only a mirage due to the fact that they are often physically absent from their offices. However, absenteeism is seen as much a symptom of a harmful social climate and stress as it is a sign that individuals are not involved in their work. Other inefficiencies such as red tape, the lack of diligence by officials and other forms of corruption characterise the administrative organisation and further damage its image among users, providers and suppliers.3 As in other countries, such as Canada, the impact of the incivility of public officials in Cameroon is profound and has negative effects on the workplace, and is linked to a decrease in employee engagement. The objective of this article is to identify the engagement factors necessary to trigger the effective involvement of public sector administrative employees in Cameroon. Employee engagement is presented in the managerial discourse as a vector of self-realisation for the worker and, at the same time, as a way of increasing profitability for the organisation. From a managerial point of view, identifying the possible initiatives is a challenge for decision-makers in terms of promoting high-quality public services. The remainder of the article is structured around four sections. The first section reviews the main stylised facts inherent in HRM in the public sector. The second section sets out the theoretical reference framework in relation to the engagement drivers. The third section presents the data collection and analysis instruments, while the fourth section, finally, provides an analysis of the empirical results of the study. 4 International Review of Administrative Sciences 0(0) The problem of the management of public servants in Cameroon In Cameroon, the missions of the public administration have evolved considerably. As the main employer, public service provider and development agent alongside a sluggish private sector, the public administration is conducted through missions whose common goal is to satisfy the needs of citizens. The state civil service manages contract staff, uniformed personnel, magistrates, diplomats and civil servants recruited through selective national examinations. These various categories are governed, respectively, by Act No. 92-007 of 14 August 1992 on the Labour Code, the Special Regulations and Decree No. 94/199 of 7 October 1994 on the General Regulations of the Civil Service, amended and supplemented by Decree No. 2000/287 of 12 October 2000 and its subsequent texts, which define the rights and obligations of civil servants, the organisation and the functioning of the civil service. A careful analysis of HRM in this sector cannot be carried out without first mentioning the crisis that struck this country in the late 1980s (Houedjissin, 2008). This economic and financial crisis, which began in 1987 and gradually spread to all sectors of activity, effectively sparked major changes in the labour market. In terms of HRM, the state’s undertaking to cut costs within the framework of Structural Adjustment Programmes largely failed to bring about the prosperity dearly longed for by public officials.4 In addition to certain measures such as the abolition of the principle of free housing, telephone, water and electricity for government employees, drastic wage cuts for civil servants contributed significantly to the deterioration of their standard of living. With these wage cuts, the government hoped to achieve a reduction in the wage bill by cutting civil service staffing by 40%. The sharp deterioration in the purchasing power of civil servants had an impact on their behaviour at work and hence on the performance of public services. Since the 1990s, corruption has been on the rise and the proliferation of numerous financial scandals in the form of the embezzlement of public funds has been perceptible on a daily basis. Such corruption allows government officials to top up their wages. In this respect, the possible impact of lower wages on the level of corruption is a subject of theoretical discussions (La Porta et al., 1999; Swamy et al., 2001). However, the lack of empirical information limits the scope of these analyses in this context. At best, there are indications of how corruption is perceived. With a score of 27 out of 100 in 2015, Cameroon continues to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world. This posture is symptomatic of the systematic use of bribes, the absence of punishments for acts of corruption and so on. As is the case in developing countries, corruption also characterises patronage systems (Grindle, 2013). The questioning of the legitimacy of the state and the resulting devaluation of the status of public officials following this first generation of reforms have led to a situation where civil servants abdicate all responsibility for their public service Tioumagneng and Njifen 5 missions and duties. The disengagement of civil servants in Cameroon is further exacerbated by a number of factors, including chronic under-administration. The comparison of the number of civil servants per inhabitant, which stood at 1.3% in 2015, confirms the problem of understaffing, which gives rise to chronic queues. With fewer than two public officials per 100 inhabitants, Cameroon is lagging far behind other countries of the sub-region, such as Gabon (5.8%), Equatorial Guinea (2.5%) and Congo (3.2%). Despite the fact that there has been significant inflation in the ranks of permanent officials, there is a clear lack of qualified staff, which can be put down to the mismatch between the staff profile and that of the position (Njifen, 2013). This shortcoming, coupled with the concentration of power within the state apparatus, leads to overburdened services, slow procedures and queues. Sometimes, agents knowingly create bottlenecks under the classic pretext that the file is lying at the bottom of the pile. The public administration effectively operates via a system of compromises, negotiations, the invention of new rules of the game and influence peddling. Between public services and users, there is a dense network of intermediaries. To increase their negotiating power in the face of an unpredictable and arbitrary administration, users sometimes actually take an initiation course to understand how the real system actually works. The introduction to local bureaucracy is often done through fully fledged administrative brokers or representatives (office boys, secretaries, lobbyists, facilitators, etc.), the scope of whose functions remains to be questioned. In such a context, mastering non-formal codes sometimes calls for a prior crash course in the craft of Cameroonian-style corruption. Most of the measures undertaken by Cameroon to restore a mobilising social climate have not yet produced the expected results. Despite the measures taken in 2008 to increase the basic salaries of civil servants by 15% and their housing allowances by 100%, wage levels remain low, and still lower than in 1993. Given inflation and, in particular, changes in consumption patterns, geared more towards products incorporating high technological values, the public servant is always on the lookout for a way to top up their salary. Consequently, the increase in the income level of civil servants is no longer the result of a policy of improving their professional capacities. Conceptual framework for the analysis of engagement drivers The concept of engagement is the subject of numerous analyses in management sciences. The first model of engagement practices proposed by Lawler (1986) pits two management approaches against each other: a mechanistic and bureaucratic approach based on control; and a so-called mobilising approach based on employee engagement or involvement. In view of this, four engagement practices are highlighted: information sharing; skills development; power sharing; and recognition systems. A company wishing to implement a mobilising management programme will have to simultaneously provide its employees with more rewards, knowledge, 6 International Review of Administrative Sciences 0(0) power and information. Later, models such as those developed by Rondeau et al. (1994), Igalens and Barraud (1997) and Tremblay (2005) highlight other employee engagement drivers. In the model developed by Rondeau et al. (1994), based on organisational beliefs, four sources of employee engagement are highlighted: (1) communication within organisations as, from a rational point of view, an employee will be more engaged if they feel that the organisation is listening to their concerns and trying to respond to them; (2) profit-sharing, which consists of recognising the efforts and capacities of employees, developing the collective effort towards the organisation’s results; (3) the practice of participatory management, through which staff mobilisation is effective if they feel that they are doing something significant that could have an impact; and (4) identification, the purpose of which is to develop a sense of belonging and beliefs common to all in the organisation. From an organisational perspective, the engagement practices included in the model developed by Tremblay et al. (2005) are based on the role of the organisation in the development of the psychological conditions of employees. Indeed, employees are engaged when they believe in what they do (driver: ‘vision, mission, objectives and values’). In addition, based on the transformational leadership theories of Lowe and Gardener (2001) and the goals of Locke and Latham (2002), Tremblay et al. (2005) present the main characteristics of mobilising leadership (driver: ‘leadership’). Through a positive and unifying attitude, the mobilising leader conveys the organisation’s values and objectives to its members. These authors also identify several HRM practices that provide fertile ground for engagement. Employers wishing to encourage the adoption of mobilising behaviours must value skills development and management policies that respect human capital and strengthen the bond of trust between the organisation and its members. Two-way communication is a sign of trust and reinforces workers’ sense of consideration. When necessary, a so-called mobilising work organisation should serve as an incentive for employees by encouraging their active and personal participation in the organisation’s mission. When they are mobilising, HRM practices aim to engage and develop employees’ skills. Clearly, an engagement approach will be powerful and sustainable for organisations that have successfully demonstrated a high degree of coherence and complementarity between vision and values, leadership styles, forms of work organisation, and HRM practices (Tremblay and Simard, 2005). Leadership, for example, is strongly linked to motivation and engagement, and HRM practices to empowerment, while the ‘vision, mission, goals and values’ driver is intimately linked to the issue of engagement and ownership. Methodological aspects of the research The presentation of the adopted methodological framework is part of a datatriangulation approach. The qualitative analysis associated with the quantitative method makes it possible to better highlight the behaviour of the actors and the Tioumagneng and Njifen 7 meanings that they give to their actions. In this context, data sources will be stated before the presentation and justification of the choice of the analytical techniques. Data collection The research method adopted in this article is hypothetical and deductive. To verify the hypothesis previously put forward between the engagement drivers and involvement, the study uses data from a questionnaire survey conducted in 2016 among 560 employees (354 men and 206 women) working in the city of Yaoundé. In terms of representativeness, this cosmopolitan city has a share of employees of 50.9%, higher than any other region within the national territory. This database consists of 98 state employees, 186 employees in the formal private sector and 276 in the informal sector. Inspired by the methodology of the Employment and Informal Sector Survey,5 this survey provides a complete picture of the labour market and, at the same time, offers a range of analytical possibilities. In addition to these statistical data, textual data collected by means of semi-directive interview methods are also used. The use of both textual and statistical data has several advantages that come, in particular, from the depth of the analytical elements and the possibility of quantifying many correlation analyses. This study covers the 98 public sector employees surveyed, all levels of training and all socio-professional categories combined (civil servant, contract manager, uniformed agents and contract staff). Processing and analysis techniques In the social sciences, qualitative interview data are often combined with a content analysis method (Campenhoudt and Quivy, 1995). Of the different content analysis techniques, this research opted for thematic analysis. In terms of benefits, thematic analysis makes it possible to identify the units of meaning that emerge from a text in the light of analytical processing, has a dual heuristic and administrative function, and offers methodological and systematic rigour to check assumptions. On the one hand, the processing of statistical data consists of estimating a logistic model. In this context, we try to model the probability of being effectively involved in the public service. Generally, the empirical literature highlights several indicators of involvement, including the execution of work in a short period of time, the achievement of set objectives and the emotional bond with the organisation (Diniz Desai and Lemoine, 2002). In this study, diligence at work, that is, the timeliness of being at the places where duty calls, is used as an indicator of actual work involvement. According to Gacha (2015), regular presence in the workplace contributes to developing a sense of personal satisfaction and accomplishment, and strengthens relationships between employees. In the case of public officials, work attendance includes two perceptible (or observable) realities: punctuality, which goes hand in hand with regularity; and the completion of the task 8 International Review of Administrative Sciences 0(0) entrusted to them within specific deadlines. The econometric specification of the logistic regression model is as follows: Yi ¼ const þ aj Xi þ bj Zi þ cj Ti þ kj Ci þ dj Si þ ei With Yi ¼ n 1 0 if Yi > 0 otherwise In this equation: Yi represents the probability that an official, i, opts or not for their effective involvement; Yi is an unobservable latent variable that describes this choice in the professional activity; X; Z; T; C and S represent vectors of explanatory variables, characterising, respectively, the so-called control variables ðXÞ and the engagement drivers selected, namely, work organisation ðZÞ, HRM practices ðTÞ, leadership ðCÞ and the vision/mission of the organisation ðSÞ; a; b; c; k and d are vectors of parameters to be estimated; and e is the error term. The estimation strategy for this type of model is based on maximising the following log-likelihood function: N n   X log L y; x0 ; b0 ¼ ð1 i¼1 h   1 i   yi Þlog 1 þ exp x0i b0 þ yi x0i b0   o yi log 1 þ exp x0i b0 With x0 and b0 representing, respectively, the set of explanatory variables and the set of parameters to be estimated. The results of estimation using the maximum likelihood technique are presented in the next section. Presentation of the results of the study Depending on the nature of the data used, the empirical results of this study focus on descriptive analysis and explanatory analysis. The results of the descriptive analysis The concept of engagement is perceived in different ways by public service officials. For some, an engaged employee is one who has an employment contract. For others, this concept is associated with the official’s behaviour within their administration. The following adjectives are used by the officials to describe an engaged employee: assiduous, respectful, punctual and diligent. The following paragraphs present some extracts from the transcripts of the interviews on the perception of involvement held with some public officials. Tioumagneng and Njifen 9 The first official talks about involvement in relation to others: What’s the point of being involved in our work when some work while others stand by and do nothing?. . . but when it comes to rewarding them, they are more highly regarded than we are. . .. proof that our efforts are not even recognised by our superiors. At first, I really loved my work . . . I worked enthusiastically until the day my frustration reached tipping point. The problem is that his colleagues make less effort than him but are more valued by their superiors. The vocabulary used seems quite rich, with the use of about 10 common names such as effort, work, reward, point and so on. We feel that the official appropriates the concept of work when he says ‘our work’ and uses qualifying adjectives such as ‘involved’, ‘regarded’, ‘recognised’ and ‘tipping point’. These elements sufficiently testify to the subject’s degree of attachment to his work despite the injustice mentioned. The time factor is also decisive. The degree of involvement decreases with seniority or years of experience. This juxtaposition of contrasting words in the last sentence of his speech seems edifying: ‘At first . . . [loved]. . .. enthusiastically until the day . . . [frustration] . . . tipping point’. This implicit opposition reflects the desolation or even regret of the subject with regard to the HRM method. The second official sees involvement from the point of view of the social ties that bind public officials: The public administration is a system of networks. Responsibilities are distributed according to the social capital. For example, I have a postgraduate degree but I work with a younger and less qualified head of department. I do all the work and I know I was assigned to this position just to support him with my experience and skills, can you imagine . . . what kind of attitude in this kind of context? In the last sequence of this transcript, the official talks about his work, his identity, his skills and his boss. From a stylistic point of view, there is an opposition between his skills and those of his head of department. He also insists on his identity – ‘I have . . . my experience . . . my skills’ – and compares himself to his boss when he uses adverbs of quantity like ‘younger . . . less qualified’. The subject expresses a lack of trust in the administration. The third official, for his part, proclaims his lack of involvement in the administration: I really don’t feel like I’m part of the administration. Since being recruited, I’m just an extra addition to the team of staff without an office in my director’s secretariat. The latter does not entrust me with any serious cases. I’m reduced on a daily basis to working as an inter-office mail liaison officer; however, I received professional training after my admission through a direct competition for entry into the public service. It’s as if my boss doesn’t trust me despite my skills. Or it’s because I’m not of 10 International Review of Administrative Sciences 0(0) Table 1. Distribution of satisfaction by agents’ professional category. Civil servants Contract managers Uniformed staff Contract staff Total Satisfied Dissatisfied 60% 33% 80% 45% 56.6% 40% 67% 20% 55% 44.4% Source: Survey data. the same ethnic group as him or because I’m not active in politics to have my skills recognised. The repeated use of negative adverbs points to a sense of exclusion: ‘doesn’t entrust me . . . doesn’t trust me . . . I’m not’. Despite the repeated and excessive use of skills, the subject expresses some regret for his lack of political activism or for tribal discrimination. The problem of the involvement of the officials is linked to the non-recognition of potential by superiors, a lack of accountability, underutilisation of skills (‘I’m just an extra addition to the team of staff’), poor working conditions (‘without an office’) or undervaluation of qualifications (‘reduced on a daily basis to working as a liaison officer’). Beyond the development of the concept, some officials are disengaged for reasons related to the inadequacy of the job profile or the inadequacy of work equipment. To properly appreciate this feeling of disengagement, officers’ job satisfaction, the main indicator of motivation (Viviant, 2005), is thus assessed. This exercise is based on the idea that the employee who is less satisfied with their job is more likely to be an absentee and less effectively involved. Table 1 shows that 44.4% of officials are dissatisfied with their jobs whereas 56.6% are satisfied. With regard to the socio-professional category, 80% of uniformed staff are satisfied compared to 60% for civil servants, 45% for contract staff and 33% for contract managers. For uniformed staff, their satisfaction is derived from the honour conferred on them by the wearing of uniforms in society, the advantages and disciplinary constraints associated with their profession, and the perception of the role conferred by their profession in the field of security. Civil servants are satisfied with the security and other benefits of this status. Some contract staff are galvanised by the recruitment of 25,000 young graduates into the civil service, without which they would still be unemployed. Finally, contract managers feel that they are less advantaged than civil servants and have more questions about their career profile. Table 2 summarises the satisfaction of officials with regard to the engagement drivers. On the one hand, the majority of officials are not satisfied with the climate of trust, respect and recognition in the public sector. On the other hand, most of them are satisfied with the organisation of work (autonomy, initiative, 11 Tioumagneng and Njifen Table 2. Main engagement drivers (%). Indicator Satisfied Dissatisfied Indicator Satisfied Dissatisfied Hiring practices Feedback Initiative Information Training Responsibility Autonomy 58.8 60.8 62.9 62.9 72.2 93.8 96.9 41.2 39.2 37.1 37.1 27.8 6.1 3.1 Recognition Trust and respect Vision Mission Objective Reward Value 28.9 39.2 46.4 51.5 55.7 68.0 88.7 71.1 60.8 53.6 48.6 44.3 32.0 11.3 Source: Survey data. Table 3. Link between involvement and certain motivation indicators. Variables Pearson statistics Probability Significance The agent’s pride in the administration The wish to remain in the administration The administration considered as a big family The desire to change task Interest of the official for their public service work The official’s love for their work The official’s love for the workplace atmosphere 5.547*** 37.30* 62.53* 11.87 12.28* 26.59* 21.90* 0.063 0.000 0.000 0.157 0.002 0.000 0.005 10% 1% 1% NS 1% 1% 1% Source: Results obtained from the SPSS software. responsibility) and HRM practices (hiring, training, information, feedback, reward) implemented in the public sector. A better organisation of work, consolidated, among other things, by good HRM practices, is not only a powerful factor of identification and motivation for civil servants, but also a significant factor in encouraging support for an administration close to its citizens. The chi-square test results presented in Table 3 show the variables that are significantly related to work involvement. The employee’s pride in the administration or their desire to remain in it is linked to their attachment to work. Feeling at home in the administration, like one big family, can generate interest in their service. When the official likes their work or appreciates the atmosphere in their workplace, their attitudes seem to influence their work involvement. The descriptive analysis of the statistical data combined with the analysis of the content of the interview transcripts made it possible to better understand the concept of involvement. The explanatory analysis in the following paragraphs is intended to identify the factors that determine the involvement of public officials. 12 International Review of Administrative Sciences 0(0) The results of the explanatory analysis A brief overview of the results presented in Table 4 shows that, overall, the estimated logit model is accurate: the explanatory variables introduced in the model contribute about 72.8% to the explanation of involvement. Many authors, such as Ashraf et al. (2014), have shown that individual attributes and socioTable 4. Determinants of involvement in public services. Number of observations ¼ 97 Y ¼ Probability (involvement) ¼ 0.7281 Explanatory variables Gender (reference: male) Age of the public official Seniority (reference: under 5 years) Professional category (reference: contract agent) Uniformed staff Contract manager Civil servant Level of qualification (reference: primary level) Junior secondary level Senior secondary level Degree level Master/PhD level Work organisation Autonomy (reference: dissatisfied) Workplace induction (reference: dissatisfied) Empowerment (reference: dissatisfied) HRM practices Hiring practices (reference: dissatisfied) Training (reference: dissatisfied) Dissemination/reception of information (reference: dissatisfied) Feedback (reference: dissatisfied) Reward (reference: dissatisfied) Leadership Trust and respect (reference: dissatisfied) Recognition (reference: dissatisfied) Vision/mission/objective/value Vision (reference: dissatisfied) Mission (reference: dissatisfied) Objectives (reference: dissatisfied) Organisational values (reference: dissatisfied) Marginal Effects Student Statistics Probability 0.64616* 0.01708 0.20528*** 5.05 0.10 1.67 0.0000 0.9170 0.096 0.14232** 0.95011* 0.09705** 2.08 2.60 1.97 0.037 0.009 0.049 0.30036** 0.27056** 0.118944 0.050753 1.99 1.92 0.09 0.04 0.046 0.055 0.931 0.972 0.76578* 0.92516* 0.2497*** 4.67 15.76 1.64 0.000 0.000 0.102 0.8736* 0.33705 0.13176 13.74 1.16 0.50 0.000 0.246 0.618 0.09194 0.50198** 0.64 1.86 0.522 0.074 0.13461 0.11413* 0.301 0.265 0.768 0.002 0.29557 0.16625 0.1238** 0.03946 0.87 1.28 2.21 0.25 0.382 0.202 0.027 0.801 Source: Results obtained from the stata 13 software. *, ** and *** represent the levels of significance: 1%, 5% and 10%, respectively. Tioumagneng and Njifen 13 demographic characteristics determine the behaviour of public officials. All other things being equal, women feel more involved than men in the Cameroonian context. Being female significantly improves the probability of being involved by 64%. This result differs from the results of Diniz Desai and Lemoine (2002), which indicate that there is no gender difference in terms of work involvement. However, it is consistent with the conclusions of some authors, such as Watson et al. (1993), who note that professional diversity can make teamwork more effective. Isnard (2003) emphasises that feminisation makes it possible to develop creativity and innovation within organisations, whereas Welbourne (1999) concludes that the presence of women in the management team is a factors that ramps up performance. Professional experience, as a vehicle for professional integration, plays a role in the involvement of public officials. Seniority of at least five years in public administration significantly increases the probability of feeling involved in the workplace by 20.5%. Contract staff are less likely to feel involved than uniformed staff (14.22%), contract managers (95%) and officials (9.7%). However, they represent about 79.5% of the public administration workforce. This difference in involvement is linked to the precariousness of contract staff and the advantages conferred on other professional categories by the regulatory texts that specifically govern them. The level of education also influences the likelihood of feeling involved in work. Officials educated to secondary level are more likely to be involved than officials educated to primary level. This result is evident in this context, where the unemployment rate of the most highly educated is relatively high, although it confirms the results of Chedrawy (2010), which indicate the positive effect of training on the involvement of Lebanese civil servants. The higher level of education does not significantly affect the work involvement of officials. As far as the work organisation variables are concerned, when an official is satisfied with their decision-making autonomy, initiative in decision-making or functional empowerment, their power to act increases and they therefore feel involved. Their probability of feeling involved improves by 76.5%, 92.5% and 24.9%, respectively. This result validates the hypothesis that engagement results from a satisfactory and stimulating work organisation (Tremblay, 2005). When an official is satisfied with the hiring practices of the administration (competition, decision or contractualisation), they feel more involved. The probability of feeling involved improves by 87.3%. This result is in line with the qualitative study by Bakiti (2014), which reports a link between the involvement of Cameroonian civil servants and the intrinsic obligations of recruitment practices. Moreover, being satisfied with rewards from their superiors for providing a better service increases the officials’ likelihood of feeling involved by about 50.2%. Consequently, hiring and incentive practices determine the involvement of public officials. Moreover, when the official is satisfied with the recognition of their potential by their superiors, the chances of them being involved increase significantly by 11.4%. 14 International Review of Administrative Sciences 0(0) Recognition maintains a climate of trust in the working relationship and generates energy and effort to develop a sense of involvement in the provision of public services. The empowerment of officials in order to encourage them to behave in a creative and innovative way significantly affects their work involvement. It increases the chances of feeling involved in work by about 12.4%. Conclusion The involvement of officials in public services is essential to ensure the performance of public administration. In this context, the theoretical scope of the concept of involvement is just as interesting for its contribution at a managerial level. The identification of factors influencing the effective involvement of public officials becomes relevant for its contribution to the empirical literature on HRM practices. The objective of this study was to analyse the main engagement drivers for the effective involvement of public officials. The methodological framework thus adopted reveals that the gender, professional experience and level of education of the official, all other things being equal, positively influence their degree of attachment to the public service. Contract staff feel less involved than other socio-professional categories (civil servants, uniformed personnel and contract managers). The degree of involvement of public officials is positively related to work organisation and HRM practices. When an official is satisfied with their decision-making autonomy and initiative in decision-making, their power to act increases and ultimately contributes to their involvement. The satisfaction of officials with the hiring practices of the administration and the rewards stimulate their work involvement. Recognition of the official’s potential by their hierarchy and empowerment also increase the chances of feeling involved in the work. These various conclusions can guide the method of public governance in general. Beyond the policy of feminisation, which is to be encouraged, public officials should be aware of the reasons for involvement that give meaning to the quality of the services provided and create a feeling of trust. Finally, the administration should be turned into a place for interpersonal dialogue where officials are called upon to create, relearn and exchange ideas. Notes 1. Article 36, paragraph 1 of the General Civil Service Code. 2. 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André Tioumagneng, holder of a doctoral thesis in Management Sciences from the University of Bordeaux 4 (France), is an Associate Professor of Management Sciences (Lecturer) and has been teaching since 2009 at the Faculty of Economics and Management (FSEG) of the University of Yaoundé 2, Cameroon. He is currently Head of the Research and Development Division at the University of Yaoundé 2 after having served for five years (2014–2018) as Vice Dean in charge of Programming and Monitoring of the Academy at FSEG. His research focuses primarily on the strategies and governance of banking companies in developing countries, and he is the author of several articles published in various high-ranking international journals, including the Journal Recherches en Sciences de Gestion, Management & Avenir, Gestion & Organisation, Mondes en de´veloppement and Asia-Pacific Journal of Management & Research. In recent years, he has been exploring new fields of study, such as public management, and, in particular, aspects related to decentralisation and diversity management. Issofou Njifen holds a PhD in human resources economics and is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Management of the University of Yaoundé-II, Cameroon. He is the author of around 10 scientific articles published in international journals ranked by the Scientific Research National Center and two books published, respectively, by Afredit and L’Harmattan. His field of research focuses on various issues related to human resources management.